Terrible Gas Mileage - Any mods that will help?

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

Sounds like this makes the possibility of going electric even easier Chevrolet's eCrate.

-greg

I like the idea and hate the execution here. What a waste of space! The battery pack takes up the whole rear end of the rig making it a huge 2 door with no cargo capacity. I, of course, am assuming you wouldn't want to stack things on top of the ginormous battery pack.

There is a huge space underneath where a fuel tank used to be. Why on earth would they not offer a big battery about the size and shape of your typical truck fuel tank?

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

I like the idea and hate the execution here. What a waste of space! The battery pack takes up the whole rear end of the rig making it a huge 2 door with no cargo capacity. I, of course, am assuming you wouldn't want to stack things on top of the ginormous battery pack.

There is a huge space underneath where a fuel tank used to be. Why on earth would they not offer a big battery about the size and shape of your typical truck fuel tank?

I thought the same thing when I read the article. This implementation is more of a 'because we can' situation, rather than making a practical vehicle.


Herb

[SMB123]

Upper limit on mpg will be about 11 to maybe 12. Now calculate how long it would take to break even if update gears. Free flowing air filter and exhaust can also help. The biggest problem is all the armchair quarterbacks don't pay you back if it doesn't work.

[Orv]

Originally Posted by carringb

FWIW some of the AAA providers do have a mobile charging service. But usually they’ll just tow you either home, or do the nearest charging station.

This is a scheme they pioneered with their out-of-fuel service for diesels. I ran out of fuel in my 300TD once and the AAA guy told me that diesels are so hard to re-prime that they won't just supply a couple gallons of fuel like they will with a gas car, they'll only tow to a repair shop.

(I talked him into towing it to a repair shop that was also a fuel station, filled the tank, and primed it with the hand pump.)

[dig255]

To original post hope this makes you feel better. I get about 8.5 not towing @ 65mph, 6.5 towing. V10 motor, 410gears, roof rack, ladder's both sides with more stuff hanging of them. So for me it is what it is, fun ain't cheap.��

[IanF]

Originally Posted by Orv

This is a scheme they pioneered with their out-of-fuel service for diesels. I ran out of fuel in my 300TD once and the AAA guy told me that diesels are so hard to re-prime that they won't just supply a couple gallons of fuel like they will with a gas car, they'll only tow to a repair shop.

(I talked him into towing it to a repair shop that was also a fuel station, filled the tank, and primed it with the hand pump.)

Been there. I ran my 12V dry once and was totally clueless. Fortunately, the AAA driver took pity on me, towed me to a station that sold diesel, then helped me "field prime" it by disconnecting the intake to the air filter, covering it and having me crank it for seemed like forever. This starves the engine of air and sucks it out of the injectors instead, thus sucking fuel through and priming everything. It worked and after totally smoking out the entire station, the truck ran fine and I drove home.

This happened in the middle of a snow storm and I think the driver also didn't feel like doing the 50+ mile round trip to get me home.

[Orv]

I think it's gotten harder as diesels have gotten more complex. On my Mercedes, which used mechanical injection, there was a hand pump you used to pull fuel from the tank. That primed the low-pressure vane pump so it wouldn't be trying to suck air. The high-pressure side was a positive-displacement pump so it self-primed very quickly.


The wagons had a design flaw in that the tank was very broad and flat. It had a baffle in the bottom, but if it had less than 1/4 tank of fuel that meant you had to climb any steep hills on just the fuel trapped under the baffle. Everything else would slosh to the back, out of reach of the pickup. The solution was to run on the top 3/4 of the tank only, but once or twice I miscalculated and had to make quick U-turns back downhill to save it. Another time I used the two quarts of engine oil I had on board to make it to the next fuel station.

[Vanguy]

I'm struggling with the same issue. I'm starting to go through the van and make sure everything is rolling free and the engine is properly tuned. It's got some miles on it and is burning some oil so that may be a factor as well. If I'm able to eek any more mpg out of it I'll let you know.

[gahamby]

That drop in EV rig would pretty much fill the van.